Challenged by state funding cuts, the Bering Strait School District needs a variety of infrastructure updates. With overcrowding at some sites, lack of teacher housing at others, and better Internet needed everywhere, the district is juggling abundant needs with finite capital.
In Shishmaref, the BSSD board meeting focused equally on what goes on inside the classroom, as the classroom itself. And this site on the Chukchi Sea coast was an appropriate spot to talk about overcrowding. The Shishmaref School is currently housing students at 170 percent capacity.
One elementary class is split into two classrooms, and the gym can barely hold all of the students at once. According to Director of Maintenance Gary Eckenweiler, building an addition to this school is the district’s top priority, and they continue to seek funding from the state’s Department of Education.
“This year would have been the year we would have been funded,” said Eckenweiler. “But because of the state budget, it looks like it’s going to be put off a few years. Which is very unfortunate and we feel bad about it, but we’ll plug away at it.
“It is our priority and, hopefully, the state will turn around and this addition will be complete. We know it’s very important.”
And Shishmaref isn’t the only overcrowded site: Stebbins’ capacity is at 100 percent and Brevig Mission crested 98 percent. Until funding comes through, Eckenweiler said these additions remain on the district’s to-do list.
Major building is temporarily on hold, but a few smaller projects are nearing completion, including vocational career tech-ed classrooms in Shishmaref and Stebbins. Student representative Esau Sinnok said this shop is a great opportunity for Shishmaref students to learn valuable skills like small engine repair, welding, and woodworking.
“These skills are needed right here in Shishmaref, and may also lead to employment after high school,” said Sinnok.
Meanwhile, attracting quality teachers and retaining them is the district’s underlying goal, said Eckenweiler, and that starts by putting a roof over their heads.
“With over 150 teacher-housing units in our district, our department is in a continual housing repair and replacement mode,” he said.
Shishmaref is currently at the top of BSSD’s teacher-housing priority list, followed by Golovin. Housing is short in Elim, where two new teacher duplexes were built, but are not yet connected to water and sewer. In Brevig Mission, the carpentry class will partner with BSSD’s maintenance department to build more housing. And recently on Little Diomede, two fires caused by a faulty power supply mean, for now, teachers are living in the school.
But at last night’s meeting, the board approved the building of two new teacher duplexes in Shishmaref with monetary help from Alaska Housing Finance Corporation.
Looking now inside the classroom, Director of Technology Annette Skarhus explained that bandwidth should increase for all sites by March 1—finishing the updates with Shishmaref, Wales, Diomede, and Brevig Mission. Tech updates are crucial with new online state testing in the next two months. Skarhus said the district recently had a practice test.
“We had some challenges with technology. We had a lot of issues as far as equipment goes. The software from Kansas City’s just not ready yet. And a lot of these initiatives are going to help us with that,” said Skarhus. “Overall, the planning went well.”
In terms of curriculum, the board voted to implement two new math programs: Eureka for elementary and Big Ideas for high school, which will replace the current enVision and Holt curricula. These new programs will cover fewer chapters in a year, but explore the material at greater depth.
To wrap up the meeting, Albert Ningeulook of the local elders committee gave final comments about culture in the classroom:
“We’re very concerned about the young people and the way their education is going,” said Ningeulook. “And I’d like to ask the school board to give all your support to bilingual education, which I think is very, very important in preserving our culture.”
The next regular meeting of BSSD’s board of education will convene April 28 in Unalakleet and Shaktoolik.
